Spin Calls Radiohead Overrated

Cheap way to get publicity.

Wow, Spin just sunk to an all time low.
This is the same magazine that praised these guys at one point. What a bunch of douchebags.

I agree with Mr. Daba.

the marilyn manson one is pretty interesting, though: http://www.spin.com/articles/myth-no-5-marilyn-manson-puppy-killing-nazi?aggr_node=55990

Spin's still around?

Spin hasn't been relevant in years.

Spin, the magazine that thinks Muse, My Chemical Romance, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chilli Peppers et al are good. Forget Rod Stewart, Spin writers need their stomachs pumped from all the PR semen they ingest.

ok, but who here ACTUALLY thinks 'in rainbows' is good?

There are a lot of constructive things to be said about Radiohead being overrated, or that their career has been in decline since the 2001 release of Amnesiac. However, this is petty and desperate sensationalism from a magazine dying a slow, painful and very deserved death.

In rainbows is amazing. It my favourite album by them. I'm not the only one that thinks that either

Even if we agree, for the sake of argument, that Radiohead isn't as good as it once was, you can't contend that the band created the "finest, most original, and significant rock album of the last 15 years" in an article that contends how much that same band sucks.

i think the last issue of Spin i actually bought after picking up was the Iggy interview that Jack Rabid did in '07. does anyone remember when Spin actually was a good read? Byron Coley had a great column on the Underground. but that was ~15-20 years ago.

i think the point is that radiohead is fallible, even though the headline is pretty sensational. very few people were willing to admit that 'in rainbows' was sub-par when it came out (myself included) and it's sort of refreshing to see a major publication come out against some of yorke's more boring material, even if it is gimmicky.

Next issue of Spin: The Sistine Chapel is ugly and Shakespeare couldn't write.

Oldtobegin: I'm with you on that one. It is nice for a major magazine to acknowledge that Radiohead isn't infallible, and I think it's a fine point to make. I just don't think it fits with this article. How is it a myth debunked? And how does fallibility equal "blowing"?

I think the issue is Spin ISN'T a major magazine anymore, and this is a cheap ploy for relevance (which Daba and AM already mentioned). It's also cheaply constructed to spark a kneejerk reaction, feeding on the natural distaste for huge followings. This has very little to do with the band, and a lot more to do with an imagined fanboy reaction to their examples. Cheap, lazy, and really cynically constructed.

I withdraw my mean-spirited comment.

yeah it's a pretty flawed definition of "myth," i'll give you that. spin : myth :: alanis morissette : ironic

It's no myth, it's a fact. Radiohead have got to be the most overrated band ever - does their later work really rate up against The Bends and OK Computer which were praised to high heaven for good reason?

Thom Yorke and co can make all the most 'interesting' sounds on their later albums, but there's no getting away from the fact that their work is now insufferably boring.

Yes. KID A kicks the Bends ass. But I agree that Amnesiac and In Rainbows are overrated.

I dont read Spin but man am I glad someone finally said this out loud.
THEY ARE EXTREMELY OVERRATED , I am not saying there not talented and that compared to other newer "rock" bands they stand alone. BUT come on, Tom Yorke is a one trick pony like Bjork. Yes, its cool at first but I dont know how anyone could listen to more than 3 RH songs in a row.
If your only aware of music made in the last 15yrs then I can see how you'd be impressed but Radiohead melodramatic and forgettable and to me has a plastic shell than cant be broken leaving useless to me.
Plus your not even as cool as you used to be because now everybody likes them but still trys to act like there your little secret.
Go see Pavement this year, that'll be a good start.
Its gonna be ok.
If you really want to be hip check out R.Stevie Moore.

Whether or not you like Radiohead, I think it's pretty clear Spin is being humorous with this. I mean, the writer obviously does feel they are overrated (as do I), but it's not like it would be news to Spin that - shock, horror - this is opinion not fact. It's playful, and a necessary antidote to the unchecked adulation of Radiohead that is the norm. It's playing on the fact that the idea they 'can do no wrong' is accepted as fact. I'm glad to see ballsy music journalism for once. Are Radiohead fans so sensitive and humourless they can't take the occasional journalist saying maybe the band isn't the greatest of all time?

"Cheap way to get publicity"? Hilarious, considering this article and your response, which are both blatant examples of "evil" publicity.

Problem is, Radiohead IS overrated. I know some of you want to be nice and call them talented, but I digress. There are waaaay more "talented" folks out there. OK Computer and Kid A are highly revered in contemporary rock criticism, but I bet that'll change when future generation critics take their pretentious writing quills out of their asses. The reason so many people say Radiohead is boring is because their music is emotionless. It's just collages of sound (that may sound pretty to you hipster folks), but it carries no emotional depth. Sorry to break it to you! :(

Radiohead is DEFINITELY overrated. I even like some of their stuff, but when I see Kid A on some of these lists as the top-rated modern album I just can't help but laugh. Inevitably, these kinds of lists are always dominated by a bunch of cheesy, pretentious, ultra-white rock bands, most of whom try their best to sound just like Radiohead. It is so BORING!

My top album list - even for a decade as hollow and uninteresting as this last one - would almost certainly have to include albums from r&b, rock, soul, hip hop, folk, indie, fusion, etc., and that would just be for my top ten.

Sadly, Kid A isn't even close to making that list. I must have fallen asleep while listening to it and misplaced it. Either that, or I used to to even out the legs under my kitchen table.

So, it IS good for something besides being the trendiest choice by college freshmen, even ahead of albums from uber-generic bands like the Avett Brothers. Talk about putting me to sleep.

I find it hilarious that about 90 percent of the comments above absolutely feed the myth Spin Magazine is trying to point out. By giving this vehement outrage at one magazine (keep in mind, ONE magazine; 99.9 percent of the media outlet is convinced that Radiohead is the cure to lupus) calling Radiohead overrated kinda proves that....Radiohead's overrated. Aside from that, however, I feel like one important thing the article hit on is that Radiohead aren't infallible. They can (and have) made bad music. Not every album they've made, contrary to public opinion, has changed the face of rock music forever.

No doubt has Radiohead succeeded immensely before; "OK Computer" has rightly earned its place as a modern classic. However, other ventures, such as the inordinately overrated "Kid A" haven't changed the face of music forever. "OMG....ambient, krautrock, and electronica all on one record?! No one's ever done that before!!!" If I read one more review that says something along those lines, I might burst. Hundreds of bands did stuff like that prior to "Kid A's" release; while the album may have been a unique venture for Radiohead, it certainly wasn't a unique musical venture for music as a whole. Porcupine Tree's 1996 record "Signify" did that, and much better than "Kid A" did. But, most people aren't willing to listen to music off of the mainstream, so when a mainstream band puts out something like that they see it as innovative when in fact it's been done before.

Hell, I thought SPIN ceased to be some time back, guess I was wrong. That magazine sucks

you geniuses saying "radionhead IS overrated" need to realize something, first of all thats your OPINION, stop stating it as though it were a fact, and it is an ill-conceived opinion at best. First of all, overrated compared to what? What fans think? Well if there are enough fans to push that idea that theyre great, then its likely that they are not overrated but rated correctly, its just the minority narrow minded douche bags that call them overrated. and this is coming from someone who listens to everything from mozart to gene krupa to zappa to zeppelin to nine inch nails to eurythmics, good music is good music to me and innovation is innovation, and radiohead definitely have a lot of great music and are definitely innovative. so calling them "overrated" just shows what a mental midget you are